Eric Fischl

Eric Fischl – Adolescence in motion

Eric Fischl was born in New York on 9 March 1948 and spent his childhood and adolescence on Long Island. In 1967, the Fischl family moved for a second time, this time to Phoenix in Arizona, where Eric attended Phoenix Junior College and then Arizona State University. For the deciding cut, Eric Fischl moved states and settled in California where he studied in Valencia at the California Institute of the Arts, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1972. Whilst still seeking orientation as an artist, he made another geographical change and took a position as supervisor at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. But here also he didn’t stay long and in 1974, Eric Fischl left the USA for Canada to work as an art teacher at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His stay in Canada brought not only a professional advancement but also affected the artist’s private life: Fischl met the landscape painter April Gornik, who would later become his wife. 

Against the Zeitgeist

As an artist, Eric Fischl realised quickly that his path had to lead away from the prevailing trends towards representational depiction. His subject is the milieu of the middle class, whose family he depicts in the picture in his own particular way. His models are nearly always naked, but in an unforced, natural way, hardly conceivable on the American East Coast. The inspiration for these works came indeed from France: during his stay on the Côte d’Azur in Nice, Eric Fischl was first confronted with nudists and bewildered by their natural attitude towards nudity. In an interview, the artist claimed he has tried to creatively unravel this bewilderment ever since and stages entire series of nudes in sunlit locations with loose strokes and a bright colour palette. In doing so, Eric Fischl is not content with the mere static image, but always hints at a certain subliminal tension or dynamic: Something is usually going on, often only subtly discernible, temporally just outside the frame captured by the artist, either just happening, or in the process of becoming.

Scandal of the “Tumbling Woman”

In 2001, Eric Fischl processed the terrible terror attack on the World Trace Centre in a series of pictures and sculptures showing the falling people, christened “ten breaths” by the artist. The image of a falling woman caused a particular stir and had to be withdrawn just one day after its unveiling due to widespread protests. With “Tumbling Woman”, critics accused Fischl of profiting from the suffering of others. As a coveted artist, Eric Fischl has received prizes and honours, and was elected to the prestigious National Academy in New York as early as 1994.

Eric Fischl lives and works in his adopted home of New York together with his wife April Gornik.